Ghazal by Mimi Khalvati

If you are the rhyme and I the refrain, don’t hang

on my lips, come and I’ll come too when you cue me.

What shape should I take to marry your own, have you

– hawk to my shadow, moth to my flame – pursue me?

If I rise in the east as you die in the west,

die for my sake, my love, every night renew me.

If, when it ends, we are just good friends, be my Friend,

muse, lover and guide, Shamsuddin to my Rumi.

Be heaven and earth to me and I’ll be twice the me

I am, if only half the world you are to me.